I often wonder how safe private flying really is compared to car travel and to be honest, these incident reports kind of put me off!
If you just look at the raw accident rate private flying is less safe than driving, though not much. However then you have to look at causes. If you never
-- do silly low altitude show-off flying
-- get low on fuel (I have never landed my 182 with less than 20 gallons in the tanks)
-- fly VFR into IMC
you have immensely improved your chances. And, unlike driving, you can't be killed by some idiot coming round a blind bend on the wrong side of the road. Even a perfectly safe driver is only about 50% safer than an average one.
If Auto Express ran proportionately as many articles about fatal car accidents as the flying mags do, each issue would be 1000 pages. That's why they don't. Also, pilots take the attitude that you can learn from other people's mistakes. Drivers, generally, take the view that they are so much better than all the other drivers that they have nothing to learn. The respective magazines pander to the nature of their readers.
I can't comment on your costs in the UK. My 1980 TR182 (a wonderful cross country aircraft, with modern avionics) costs me about $160/hr in direct costs, including maintenance and engine fund. Plus hangarage, insurance, depreciation, and upgrades. My guess is that to translate this to a UK cost, assume $1=£1 and double it.
Unlike cars, modern planes have the same fuel economy as old ones - the engines are the same. Personally, having a little SR20 time, I found it seriously underpowered and wouldn't touch one with a thousand foot pole as a purchaser, though the SR22 seems a decent, if pricy, aircraft. Safety also is 90% about the pilot and 10% about the aircraft - assuming you maintain it properly of course (and if you don't, that still about the pilot and not the aircraft). In fact the Cirrus generally has a worse accident record than, for example, the 182 - despite its airframe parachute.
If I was in the market for a new(ish) airplane, I'be looking at the DA40. It has an excellent safety record, it's s delight to fly, and the performance is plenty for trips to France.